Top Copywriting Books... Ever

UPDATE: I've looked through the 4 pages of replies to this thread, extracted the books mentioned, and listed them below.

I know I've missed some, so please reply to the thread or pm me, and I'll update this list. Same goes if you don't think something should be there.

I'd like to construct a weebly page with a ratings system on, so Warriors can let me know their rating of each book. That way we can come up with an "Ultimate List Of Copywriting Books" for this thread.

Remember - the idea here is to learn copywriting without spending hundreds (or thousands) on top level courses.

Don't get me wrong. Of course taking part in something like Carltons SWS, Makepeace's Desktop Copy Coach, etc. etc. is going to educate you no end, and vastly improve your copy skills - so I'm NOT bashing these courses.

The idea here is to learn the basics (or maybe even everything you need to know) from some good ol' hard back books. Use Abe books, or Amazon - get yourself a second hand copy of the books that appeal to you, and you can get started on your copywriting education without breaking the bank...

A BIG thank-you to everyone who has (and continues to) comment on the thread!

Joe Sugarman's books have a more modern feel to them
than many of the classics mentioned here - even though
he wrote them in the days before the internet he
was dealing with technological innovations. One
year he was selling calculators for $200 a pop and
the next year better calculators were $40 - kinda
like the Internet Marketing phenomenon where information
that sells for $1000 today is given away next year.

Useful stuff.

I've read Drayton Bird's book on Direct Marketing and
it's first-rate - more useful in many ways than "7
Steps To Freedom" - which deals specifically with
how to run a direct mail business, not copywriting.

Even though it's not a copywriting guide get Seven Kings' "On Writing." This is one of his few non-fiction books with a slight autobiographical slant. Excellent stuff.

In a nutshell King says, you've gotta have some intrinsic talent or all the study in the world won't help. Once you've determined you've got the basic talent there are two things you must do consistently. Those are: read a lot and write a lot. The rest will take care of itself. I agree. Good luck.

Even though it's not a copywriting guide get Seven Kings' "On Writing." This is one of his few non-fiction books with a slight autobiographical slant. Excellent stuff.

I agree that Steven King's book is excellent. It's not a how-to in the traditional sense, but he shares the nitty-gritty to get the job done. Great for writing and copywriting!

I actually saw Steve King in person years ago in New England at a movie showing of one of his stories, and he's still a writing icon. He was very unassuming, and if you didn't know who he was, he looked like he could've been a teacher or professor.

Even though it's not a copywriting guide get Seven Kings' "On Writing." This is one of his few non-fiction books with a slight autobiographical slant. Excellent stuff.

In a nutshell King says, you've gotta have some intrinsic talent or all the study in the world won't help. Once you've determined you've got the basic talent there are two things you must do consistently. Those are: read a lot and write a lot. The rest will take care of itself. I agree. Good luck.

I found it very disappointing - it's poorly written, half the book is completely irrelevant, the part on writing was unoriginal, and so profanity laced I tossed it in the trash. This is the sort of writing you'd expect from a middle schooler.

Hi maximillion - I looked at it. I promote Simpleology
as an affiliate - I generally feel their stuff is good.

If you've never read Sugarman's "Advertising Secrets
of The Written Word" you might really enjoy the Sugarman
part of it - because you wouldn't know it's just some guy
reading the book to you word-for-word.

The Ted Nicholas part is, as far as I can tell, original.

There are 60 million people in the USA who basically don't
read - but they still want to learn how to make a lot
of money. The market for spoken-word info-products
is vast for that reason. Simpleology break things down
into nice little bites. I think it's a good system but if
you are a voracious, aggressive student I think you
might find the copywriting course too slow.

Still two world-class teachers though - guys who made
their fortunes selling stuff with copy - not peddling
copywriting seminars and courses. They both started
doing that only after they were very successful.

If you've never read Sugarman's "Advertising Secrets
of The Written Word" you might really enjoy the Sugarman
part of it - because you wouldn't know it's just some guy
reading the book to you word-for-word.

The Ted Nicholas part is, as far as I can tell, original.

That's what I was worried about.

$45 a month for 12 months = $540 to have a book read to you.

The AWAI course also seems good, but as you mentioned - us aggressive students don't want to wait a year just to learn the basics...

---

As you're a pro (I'm guessing), do you think it possible to become a copywriter just by studying these books, and just practising?

I mean, it would be nice to take on a few small time gigs until enough income arives to afford the high end courses.

Yes. If you've sold stuff in person of on the phone it
will be easier for you though.

The most important thing is to write. I don't follow
formulas normally. For a cheap, quick salesletter
for a generic product I might though. For a high-priced
product I spend a lot of time working out what to
say - the big ideas and arguments - when I sit down
to write they flow out.... mostly in a messy way that
needs a lot of editing .

I'm not a big-shot by any stretch but my copy does sell...
and know what? I read the books over and over and when
I sit down to write I don't think much about what the do's
and don't's are in the books.

Nobody has mentioned Herschell Gordon Lewis's books. I have
a couple and they are first-rate in my opinion. If I had to
pick two books that could take you from being a guy
who writes okay copy to a guy who writes great copy
they would probably be "Breakthrough Advertising" and
"Direct Mail Copy That Sells" - because both books are very
specific in different areas that can transform your whole
approach in subtle and powerful, creative ways.

Don't be fooled by the low price tag and packaging - I think Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman is a good resource. It's kind of checklist style - but quotes a ton of other books and resources. It's probably a little advanced for beginners.

Don't be fooled by the low price tag and packaging - I think Ca by Drew Eric Whitman is a good resource. It's kind of checklist style - but quotes a ton of other books and resources. It's probably a little advanced for beginners.

It's a great for teaching primary emotional motivators etc.

If you want to understand the psycological triggers behind sales and copywriting then Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman is a MUST!

He also just got on Twitter and has some really helpful tweets, all promoting Cashvertising, of course . @DrewEricWhitman is his username.

"Advertising Secrets of The Written Word" by Joe Sugarman is a seriously kick-ass book on writing killer copy. How that managed to evade a significant mention in a thread about the the top copywriting books makes about as much sense to me as tits on a donkey.

I'm currently reading "The Elements of Copywriting" by Gary Blake and Robert Bly. It was written a while ago so some sections, like web copywriting, are out of date. But most of the methods seem to be timeless.

By the way, I'm new here and looking forward to getting involved in a few discussions

"The Adweek Copywriting Handbook" is a newer version in paperback
of "Advertising Secrets" - which is available in paper but mostly sold
as an exquistively printed and bound hardcover. It's really a nice
book to own but the Adweek handbook has the same information
in it. Personally I like Sugarman's writing but his book doesn't make
my A-list because it pertains to a specific type of catalog writing he
basically invented and was wildly successful with. Drew Alan Kaplan
is one of the surviving exponents of the style - though as far as
I know his catalog is now all online. If D.A.K. wrote a book on copy
or marketing I would buy it.

Sugarman's advice on the specifics of how-to write copy may or may
not work for you.

Often ignored is Jeffrey Lant's book "Cash Copy". Some people hate his
style but if you could only have one book on the topic it's a contender.

Maximillion_Z,
In my opinion anyone serious about copywriting needs to read "Scientific Advertising". It's a classic. Claude Hopkins is considered the "Father" of modern day advertising. If you haven't read it yet you can read it for free on my blog. 2Ultra.com Presents: ---> Ad-Copy Secrets Revealed It is located in the header under the title.

Does anyone have suggestions on books for newbs who have never written copy or been in the advertising business before? I'm not talking about stuff on how to string a sentence together, more about the nuts and bolts of putting together copy without a lot of jargon (or at least explaining what the jargon means).

Does anyone have suggestions on books for newbs who have never written copy or been in the advertising business before? I'm not talking about stuff on how to string a sentence together, more about the nuts and bolts of putting together copy without a lot of jargon (or at least explaining what the jargon means).

That's what this thread is about -- go back and check out some of the books mentioned. None of them are grammar handbooks, they're all about how to copywrite.

In my opinion and as has already been mentioned get How To Write A Good Advertisement by Schwab and also Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy and then get your hands on about 50 to 60 good swipes of John Carlton, Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga and Brian Keith Voiles and memorize them until you can recite them in your sleep.

Also get your hands on courses that break down good copy and explain step by step why and how the letter was put together. License To Steal by John Carlton is one such example. It helps you get good fast

Originally Posted by Hesster

Newbie copywriter (and newbie Warrior) here...

Does anyone have suggestions on books for newbs who have never written copy or been in the advertising business before? I'm not talking about stuff on how to string a sentence together, more about the nuts and bolts of putting together copy without a lot of jargon (or at least explaining what the jargon means).

Does anyone have suggestions on books for newbs who have never written copy or been in the advertising business before? I'm not talking about stuff on how to string a sentence together, more about the nuts and bolts of putting together copy without a lot of jargon (or at least explaining what the jargon means).

Honestly, it's a very good idea to start with Bob Bly's "The Copywriter's Handbook." He goes through a lot of information you'll need to know. Plus, it's inexpensive on Amazon.
And as I'm sure you noticed, pick-up "Scientific Advertising" by Claude Hopkins. You can find that one online, if need be. Just read it.

I also recommend "The Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan Kennedy. A very thorough checklist style book. More good advice is to get together a good swipe file. Study big winners, practice 'em in longhand, start memorizing. Voila! You're getting good.

Best,

Angel

P.S. Read The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert. You can find a .pdf collection of them online. Great resource.

Web Copy That Sells by Maria Veloso - lays everything out in a logical step-by-step sequence that even beginners can easily understand. She also has a copywriting course at webcopywritinguniversity.com which I haven't taken as it is much more expensive than the book.

Dan Kennedy - just about anything by this guy is pretty good from my experience.

Drew Eric Whitman - If this is who I think it is I bought a book of his about 10-12 years ago and it was excellent. (Unfortunately I can't find it anymore.) Again, follows a logical process. Does anybody know if he's the guy who bills himself as the "copywriting surgeon" or "ad copy doctor" or some such thing? I remember the book I bought had a picture of him on the cover in a surgeon's mask.

One thing I've noticed, which someone mentioned earlier, is that a lot of the top copywriters do advocate sitting down with proven sales letters and just literally hand copying these letters over and over to get the experience of how it actually feels to write great ad copy. Sounds a bit strange and it's tedious as hell but a lot of them swear by it. I tried it once but after a few days it just started driving me nuts so I stopped. There just might be something to this method though. Apparently Hunter S. Thompson did the same thing with writers he admired, like Hemmingway. He turned out to be pretty good, to say the least, even though it's obviously a completely different style of writing.

Scott Haines a protege of halbert did the same thing...copied one of Halbert's books by hand...

And the great Stephen King as a boy used to copy novels by hand...over and over.

There's a reason this is considered such a great exercise.

Originally Posted by pegasuspress

A lot of great suggestions here. My personal favorites:

Web Copy That Sells by Maria Veloso - lays everything out in a logical step-by-step sequence that even beginners can easily understand. She also has a copywriting course at webcopywritinguniversity.com which I haven't taken as it is much more expensive than the book.

Dan Kennedy - just about anything by this guy is pretty good from my experience.

Drew Eric Whitman - If this is who I think it is I bought a book of his about 10-12 years ago and it was excellent. (Unfortunately I can't find it anymore.) Again, follows a logical process. Does anybody know if he's the guy who bills himself as the "copywriting surgeon" or "ad copy doctor" or some such thing? I remember the book I bought had a picture of him on the cover in a surgeon's mask.

One thing I've noticed, which someone mentioned earlier, is that a lot of the top copywriters do advocate sitting down with proven sales letters and just literally hand copying these letters over and over to get the experience of how it actually feels to write great ad copy. Sounds a bit strange and it's tedious as hell but a lot of them swear by it. I tried it once but after a few days it just started driving me nuts so I stopped. There just might be something to this method though. Apparently Hunter S. Thompson did the same thing with writers he admired, like Hemmingway. He turned out to be pretty good, to say the least, even though it's obviously a completely different style of writing.

Gary Halbert taught me dig deep into the desire of the consumer and cut it out with a knife... Gary Bencivenga showed me how to seduce men & women with the sweet and gentle words of angels! Perhaps Gary's course is beyond your reach or possibly sold out. If so, I highly commend "every precious word" of Bencivenga's Bullets (free). Gary is the most persuasive and gracious copyrwriter I have ever read.

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